From zero to 'quantum-ish': CNM gears up for first-ever quantum technician boot camp

Central New Mexico Community College will be welcoming its first-ever quantum boot camp in a new training lab come fall.

CNM partnered with Sandia National Laboratories to start providing a twice-a-year quantum technician boot camp, launching around October. Students will leave the 10-week course with an academic certificate recognized by employers.

One of the goals of the boot camp is to churn out a quantum technician workforce as New Mexico strives to brand itself as a quantum hub. The state has already attracted major companies like Colorado-based Quantinuum and has a place in the regional initiative Elevate Quantum.

“Those skills will prepare them for jobs that are here today,” CNM Professor Brian Rashap said. He’ll be one of the instructors of the boot camp.

The CNM course also makes learning about quantum systems more accessible, which quantum physicist and Sandia technical staffer Megan Ivory said are complex, expensive and difficult to maintain.

The program doesn’t require previous math or science knowledge or prerequisites, since it’s independent of a college degree track.

“The idea here was, let’s create something where students can come (and) maybe they don’t have a fully operating quantum computer, but they have a lot of the components that go into it,” Ivory said, “so that they have those base skills for when they go into graduate school or a job.”

The course will accept up to 12 students to ensure everyone can do hands-on work, Rashap said. The course will cover math and science education, equipment training — such as with ultra-high vacuum or diamond quantum sensing systems — and possibly the assembly of a full quantum system.

“It won’t be a computer,” Rashap said, “but it’ll be something that is quantum-ish.”

The program falls under CNM’s Deep Dive umbrella, an initiative at the college that offers various project-based technology boot camps. Nearly all of CNM’s Deep Dive students are on scholarships, Rashap said, and the quantum program is eligible for tuition aid through the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

Funding for the quantum technician course and its equipment is coming from Elevate Quantum, the state’s national labs, Intel Corp. and the U.S. Department of Education.

The lab that CNM created for the boot camp — called the Quantum Learning Lab, or QuLL (pronounced “cool”) — could also be available for other uses in the summer when the program isn’t running. Rashap proposed letting students studying fields like engineering at other schools use the lab and its equipment.

Applications will open for the quantum technician boot camp in July, though anyone interested in getting more information can sign an online interest form at deepdivecoding.com/quantum/.

This story has been updated.